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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Hilaria Baldwin pretended to be Spanish wtf?!

999 replies

Ballstothis148 · 28/12/2020 00:24

This is the least important and most weird story of 2020.... this woman comes up on my Instagram a lot as a suggested page. Tbh I don’t find her interesting but know she’s Spanish and is into health, having babies with Alec Baldwin and that’s pretty much it. She speaks with a Spanish accent, on her IG page she calls her children “Baldwinitos” Hmm I do remember an article saying when she speaks Spanish to her kids people confuse her for a nanny so I thought an interesting take on a European mum in the States.

Except it’s all a lie. She’s not remotely Spanish. Her wealthy Boston parents (no Spanish ancestry) now have a holiday home there.

What is wrong with people?! I include me for being too interested :) why pretend to be Spanish? In one interview she even pretended she didn’t know the word for cucumber as her English isn’t that good Confused

Oh and she’s not even called Hilaria, she’s called Hilary. This year I swear... what an odd story!! I did know a girl who went very French after a romance there one year... maybe it’s a thing!

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sandandso · 29/12/2020 20:54

@Wheresmykimchi

But th fact people have researched this in so much detail.....Confused
I don't think it has taken that much research. It just takes someone to post a yearbook photo and compare it to a clip of her talking in a Spanish accent and pretending not to know the English word for cucumber, etc. It's not very well-hidden.

I have to say, though, every time I have countered someone's passionate rant with "But why be mean and make such a fuss of it?", I've later realised that they had an important point (even if I wasn't in the mood to hear it expounded at great length), and that I was reacting in a defensive conflict-averse way because I didn't want to have to think about it, in case that made me a meanie too.

NotPrude · 29/12/2020 20:54

@Gurufloof Apparently people have posted about it before on sites like Reddit but it was never picked up by mainstream media. For whatever reason, it was picked up this time.

If you click on the link that I shared above, there’s a short clip from her mum, where she hesitates before referring to her as “Ilaria” rather than “Hillary”. I wonder if she got her family on board with keeping up the persona, although if she did and they agreed, that’s a whole new level of deception.

froggywentacarolling · 29/12/2020 20:57

Incidentally people (including old school friends) have been talking online about the fact her backstory is all a fraud for years. Someone on another forum has been posting links. I don't know why that one particular tweet from last week went viral, and none of the previous stuff did, but that often happens, for a variety of reasons.

Poppyolive90 · 29/12/2020 21:05

I think it went viral because Hillary had posted a response to Amy Schumer’s mocking post about her underwear photo with son Eduardo so her name was ‘trending’ somewhat

SnowyOwlWan · 29/12/2020 21:08

Not Amy Schumer's finest hour in my opinion 🤔

Wheresmykimchi · 29/12/2020 21:10

I'm just grumpy the night. Lockdown christmas🙊

Ballstothis148 · 29/12/2020 21:18

lol lockdown Christmas is exactly why I first read the story in the first place, waaaaay more entertaining than the news! And I really do have so many questions... like... why?! How!? I am seriously impressed at her being NOT Spanish and fluent in Spanish, I’d be going on about that all the time if I were her. I can only speak English (badly!)

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user1471565182 · 29/12/2020 21:22

Anybody know if Jameel Jamila is still a compulsive liar as well?

Andylion · 29/12/2020 21:37

They met 10 years ago when Alec was in his fifties, divorced, career was fairly down and out and his daughter didn’t really speak to him at that point.

They met when he was still starring in 30 Rock, which was hugely successful. I don't understand all this "washed up actor" stuff people keep posting. If you don't like him, fine, but he is not washed up.

Andylion · 29/12/2020 21:41

@user1471565182

Why would you get a flight between new york and toronto? barely worth the effort
It is if you want to travel between the two cites 🤨
Gurufloof · 29/12/2020 22:02

Anybody know if Jameel Jamila is still a compulsive liar as well

Hmmmmm I'm currently (slowly) going through a thread about her on another site. I'd never heard of her before but it appears yes, still liberal with the truth and "the truth"

queenofarles · 29/12/2020 22:02

Alec Baldwin’s career never dwindled down,
He starred in many successful movies in 2000s and 2010s .

SnowyOwlWan · 29/12/2020 22:13

yeh, his career is still going strong

user1471565182 · 29/12/2020 22:14

I like to check what new (often bee or cancer related) complicated disease Jameela has come down with every few weeks on twitter. Shameless.

Flaxmeadow · 29/12/2020 22:18

Soon to be US president Joe Biden tells anyone who will listen that he's "Irish" all the time. He's never even lived in Ireland and only has one or two distant ancestors, out of dozens of the same generation, who did, and that was over 200 years ago. I can't see much difference between him and Hilaria really, or millions of others who live there

Americans do this kind of heritage identity cherry picking or exaggeration all the time.

itsmeagain76 · 29/12/2020 22:19

NRTFT but the Daily Fail is now reporting on her Spanish themed wedding complete with pictures and the bride in a traditional Spanish dress. Vows said in Spanish etc. Quoted afterwards as saying she was "glad it represented her culture" etc.
Very bizarre. She must be so embarrassed.

froggywentacarolling · 29/12/2020 22:20

Gosh this just keeps on getting funnier and funnier.

HB did a podcast just a few weeks ago where she claimed she'd been a fan of the clothes shop Zara "since before I ever came to America".

There's a video online of her very American-accented mother (who HB has previously claimed struggled to pronounce "Baldwin") talking about her kids, and she takes a huge pause before very hesitantly saying "Ill-ar-eeh-a" and it honestly sounds like she's never said the name out loud in her life.

user1471565182 · 29/12/2020 22:24

Please god dont get me start on US plastic paddies because I cannot stop myself

Flaxmeadow · 29/12/2020 22:34

Also as Spanish she can claim Hispanic status in USA. This allows her to appropriate the culture of a group which is traditionally marginalised in the States. This is the reason in one article she admits that she is indeed white

Er Spanish people are not emigrating to the USA in large numbers and Spanish people are white.

Spain is in Europe, it is nothing to do with the Americas or being Hispanic or Latina or whatever other latest USA terminology is used.

Wasn't it the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas who said that when he moved to the USA he couldn't understand why people kept calling him "Hispanic" and that he didn't even know what the word meant and had never heard it before.

Why do so many people in the USA only seem to see things in terms of a USA experience. Some on twitter didn't even know that "Spain" was in Europe or that Spanish was spoken in Europe. Some thought she had been pretending to be from Latin America, presumably because they thought that "Spain" was in Latin America!

NotPrude · 29/12/2020 22:37

Just seen the Daily Fail article...it just gets worse and worse!

I actually wonder if Alec Baldwin has fallen for the Spain thing and she’s kept up the pretence in their marriage for years...

Flaxmeadow · 29/12/2020 22:41

She didn't grow up in Spain though. She grew up in Boston and went to Spain for holidays, like millions of Brits do every year. Doesn't make them Spanish

To be fair to her, though I do think it's all a bit bonkers, as I understand it. Her father was some kind of lecturer or professor in Spanish studies or language, so I think her time spent in Spain growing up might have been considerably more than a quick week holiday hop to Torremolinos via jet2

sandandso · 29/12/2020 22:48

@Flaxmeadow

She didn't grow up in Spain though. She grew up in Boston and went to Spain for holidays, like millions of Brits do every year. Doesn't make them Spanish

To be fair to her, though I do think it's all a bit bonkers, as I understand it. Her father was some kind of lecturer or professor in Spanish studies or language, so I think her time spent in Spain growing up might have been considerably more than a quick week holiday hop to Torremolinos via jet2

No, I think he was a lawyer. He studied Spanish literature at undergrad level, that's all we know. (Yes, a bit horrified at how much I have absorbed about this family's lives now)
EileenGC · 29/12/2020 22:55

During their vows, Hilaria is also seen waving a flamenco hand fan

I'm Spanish and I've been to many Spanish weddings in my life. Super traditional, southern Spain, Roman Catholic ones too (those are the most Spanish weddings you'll ever get). I'm yet to see another bride do this 🤣🤣 it's soooo cringe

sandandso · 29/12/2020 22:59

The flamenco fan picture at the altar just sums it all up perfectly, doesn't it? Ole!

I do feel sorry for her as well. It must mean a lot to her. And I tend to think anyone broadcasting their family life like that is not quite right one way or another.